Greetings from Hanoi, Vietnam! S0, I'm here and I've got stories to share, starting at the very beginning when my life consisted of flight time up high in the sky. I left Minnesapolis at 11:45am and arrived to Seattle, WA nearly 4 hours later. I brought my laptop along with seasons 1-3 of House but, much to my dismay, the DVD's wouldn't play sound out of my laptop. I could hear everything else...my iTunes, the sample DVD's in the program on my desktop that should give me sound but nope, not House. That left the first leg of my trip to finishing a terrible book I was reading that I brought with the intention of conveniently "leaving" at the Seattle airport for someone to stumble upon. Which is exactly what I did.The second leg of my trip was from Seattle to Seoul, Korea. I sat next to a couple from India. They spoke broken English (0k, they knew about 5 words, literally, but the little that we did talk, we got along fine) and we became "friends". They were in Seattle for two months visiting their daughter. What we bonded over wasn't the conversation, but food. The woman initially gave me a big handful of grapes. I wasn't very hungry, but I didn't want to say no. I've learned enough in my lifetime to accept food from others, especially people from different countries. By saying no, in essence, I fear coming off as disrespectful. I chose not to "risk" that and ate the not-so-fresh fruit. A couple of hours later, and the three of us were back to bonding over food. The two of them were eating something that looked A LOT like dried fish food. They started eating and I got up to go to the bathroom. When I returned to my seat there was a paper bowl on my tray table 1/4 filled with this yellow flakey stuff, oh! and 6 Ritz bits...how those made the bowl, I'll never know. I tried it with a big smile on my face the whole time I was moving the spoon to my mouth for the first bite thinking, "Please don't let this taste like fish food. Please don't let this taste like fish food." And IT DIDN'T! :) It was sort of salty and peanutty.
A few hours later even MORE food came out of their bag and, you've most likely guessed it by now, they wanted to share. Admittedly, I had never tried or SEEN any of the Indian food they were presenting me, so this was a fun adventure. This time I got a paper plate with two home made pieces of round bread that was a bit thicker than a tortilla and greasier. Not my favorite, but I was already in SO deep at this point in our "friendship", I couldn't say no. I mean, the woman grabbed my hand and called me her "sister". Bonding people. We were bonding. Next to the greasy tortillas I got three small scoops of different flavors. One looked like jelly but the flavor was a bit spicy, sweet and pickled. My taste buds were NOT enjoying this option. Next was a pickeled jalapeno that had something like a bunch of nuts all over in it. Again, a very intense mixture of flavors which was edible, but not to my liking. And the third scoop was much like crushed peanuts. So, basically, you eat with your hands, breaking off a piece of bread and then you pick up your flavor of choice with your fingers using your bread as a utinsel, and you eat. I didn't have enough water to get me through this plate, but the dear couple was pleased, and that made me happy. We got a picture at the end of the flight..my first one of this trip.
Now I am in Hanoi and yesterday was my first official work day. Nothing like arriving to your hotel at midnight and starting your work day just 8 short hours later. I had a great day. An international student alumni of Augsburg met me at my hotel and we visited Hanoi Amsterdam high school. I presented to the 10-12th graders and then in 4 different classrooms. The students were attentive, very interested in Augsburg, and extremely bright. Later in the afternoon I had individual appointments with three students and their parents. My day ended with dinner at the home of one of Augsburg's current students parent's house. We ate steamed fish, Vietnamese spring rolls, and crab soup. Dessert followed...fresh mango, papaya and some small pastries. By 10pm I could barely keep my eyes open..but this trip has just begun and I'm having a blast!
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